Major League Baseball’s inability to define the role of its All-Star Game has left Yasiel Puig caught in a rundown of confusing agendas.

The Dodgers’ phenom belongs in the Midsummer Classic. He has everything that game demands: excitement, popularity and production that is good or better than his peers. Yet he is in danger of being left out because of conflicting criteria that don’t always put the best players on the field.

With the stakes so high — the winning league secures home-field advantage for its World Series representative — that’s a crime.

Have you seen him? Every trip to the plate offers the promise of something dramatic. His bat speed and leg speed are equally ridiculous. Quick. Name a player. Puig is bigger, stronger and faster than him.

Entering Tuesday night’s meeting with San Francisco, he was hitting .442, and his seven home runs and 34 hits through 20 career games has never been done before, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

His sample size is small but so what? The All-Star Game is about the here and now. The best players deserve to be on the field ever since MLB let the game determine World Series home-field advantage.

He has a little more time to make his case. The All-Star Selection Show is scheduled for July 6; the game is July 16.

Some seem to already have made their decisions.

San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who is heading the National League squad, called adding Puig to the team “a real long shot” on SiriusXM’s baseball show with Jim Bowden and Casey Stern.

“I would have a hard time picking somebody who has been here three weeks, to be honest,” Bochy said. “The numbers would have to be so stupid that you say, ‘OK, I’ll consider it.’ ”

Eh, the numbers are pretty stupid.

“I couldn’t take away from a player who has been here and done it the whole half and been out there grinding every day and he doesn’t go,” Bochy said. “I couldn’t look at that player. I couldn’t look at myself, to be honest.”

Even Puig’s manager, Don Mattingly, is struggling with the decision.

“Right now, no,” Mattingly said when asked if Puig belonged in the game. “Are his numbers better than anybody else’s? If he gets to the point where he’s putting up huge numbers, he should be considered. Right now, you’re asking if he should be above guys with 40 RBIs.”

If he is playing better than those with 40 RBIs, why not?

Major League Baseball has created this mess. The game’s transition from celebrity contest to meaningful meeting has been sloppy.

Fans shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat when they are navigating the postseason.

After fans choose the starters, eight pitchers and one player at each position are added based on voting by MLB players, managers and coaches. Bochy will fill out the remaining spots, making sure each team has at least one representative.

It’s unlikely Puig will be in that mix. He’ll have one final shot when a single player is added after the process on a fan vote. Five players will be nominated, based on input from MLB and Bochy, and one will be picked during last-chance voting from July 6 to July 11.

That might be Puig’s best chance if the league steps in and insists he is among the five.

Why wouldn’t it?

Think about Puig coming in to pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth.

That’s the bonus. MLB should be happy to have him in the mix. He is must-see TV, which is what the All-Star Game needs after last season’s record-low ratings.

This debate isn’t new. Stephen Strasburg was passed up three seasons ago, despite a 2.32 ERA, because of just seven starts.

Baseball is a game of curious idiosyncrasies.

It is a stickler for rules that are apparently unwritten.

Its definition of “all-star” changes by the minute.

Yet it is a great game often accompanied by a terrific soundtrack. One of those voices sounds awfully smitten by Puig.

“I’ve never seen anybody do what he has done in such a short period,” legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully tweeted recently.

And Scully has seen a lot of baseball.

“He’s been remarkable,” he added, “a five-tool player who constantly shows the tools.”

Those tools deserve to be shown a big stage.

Reach Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and follow her at Twitter.com/PaolaBoivin.

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